It's hard to believe, but I both Matthew and I have lived in Oregon almost our entire lives, and never once have either of us been to Bend or Central Oregon! We decided it was high time that we check out more of our beautiful state, so we've packed the kids and car up for a week of fun, camping and adventures in Central Oregon!
Our first stop (after a loooong drive!) were the Painted Hills, just outside of Mitchell, Oregon. The hills are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and are made of heavily eroded volcanic ash layers. They were absolutely beautiful! Depending on the time of day and angle of the sun (and settings on my camera) the colors ranged from dull reds and yellow to spectacular bright shades of both colors. There were a few trails that we hiked around the Painted Hills, giving us different angles and viewing opportunities.
We also wandered down to some much smaller, much less painted, but still beautiful red hills further down one of the hiking paths. These little red clay stone hills were 33 million years old! That was kind of amazing to think about.
In the middle of the Ochoco national forest, high up in the mountains, we found the most amazing little campground to stay for the night. There were probably 30+ campsites, but we were one of only 4 campers occupying the place! We had one person up the hill across from us, but other than that, we were totally on our own - which is exactly how we like to camp. And it was absolutely beautiful there:
The kids happily ran around in the forest/meadow behind our campground, waving sticks around and pretending they were some sort of early explorers while Matthew and I set up camp.
We stayed up late sitting around the campfire, enjoying the quiet of the forest and the crackle of the fire. So far, our Central Oregon vacation was off to a great start!
Our first stop (after a loooong drive!) were the Painted Hills, just outside of Mitchell, Oregon. The hills are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and are made of heavily eroded volcanic ash layers. They were absolutely beautiful! Depending on the time of day and angle of the sun (and settings on my camera) the colors ranged from dull reds and yellow to spectacular bright shades of both colors. There were a few trails that we hiked around the Painted Hills, giving us different angles and viewing opportunities.
We also wandered down to some much smaller, much less painted, but still beautiful red hills further down one of the hiking paths. These little red clay stone hills were 33 million years old! That was kind of amazing to think about.
In the middle of the Ochoco national forest, high up in the mountains, we found the most amazing little campground to stay for the night. There were probably 30+ campsites, but we were one of only 4 campers occupying the place! We had one person up the hill across from us, but other than that, we were totally on our own - which is exactly how we like to camp. And it was absolutely beautiful there:
The kids happily ran around in the forest/meadow behind our campground, waving sticks around and pretending they were some sort of early explorers while Matthew and I set up camp.
We stayed up late sitting around the campfire, enjoying the quiet of the forest and the crackle of the fire. So far, our Central Oregon vacation was off to a great start!